Telltale Games is reportedly closing down and cancelling most current projects

Telltale Games has won critical praise for titles like The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us, but that was not enough to keep the lights on. A flood of now-former employees report that Telltale is closing its doors in the near future after laying off most workers. Telltale has not officially confirmed any changes as of yet, but this looks like the end.

According to Gamasutra, Telltale has canceled all current projects save for one: The Walking Dead Season 4. A small team of about 25 employees is remaining to finish work on that game, and everyone else is being shown the door. It sounds like once that project is done, Telltale Games will cease to exist.

This doesn’t come completely out of the blue. Telltale fired about 25% of its staff late last year because the game industry “shifted in tremendous ways over the past few years,” according to CEO Pete Hawley. With mobile gaming on the rise, it’s possible Telltale’s style of game design wasn’t profitable enough. The in-app purchases were limited to content expansions rather than consumable currency and random loot. Those are cash cows—in-depth storytelling not so much.